State Police: 3 deaths during holiday weekend

Updated 11:05 pm, Monday, November 26, 2012

State Police said they responded to more than 10,000 calls, including three for traffic accidents involving fatalities plus 56 others with injuries, during the four-day Thanksgiving weekend.

Troopers investigated 410 crashes during the four-day span, according to a news release.

Sunday night, 24-year-old David Cooley, of North Haven, was killed in a crash on Interstate 91 in North Haven after losing control of the car he was driving and crashing into a tree. His passenger, Paige Camera, 24, of Meriden, was critically injured and was on life support Monday morning, police said.

Earlier Sunday, a man was killed in a fiery crash on Route 8 in Beacon Falls. His name hasn't yet been released. The crash happened on the northbound side of the roadway around 2:20 a.m.

The first fatal crash of the weekend occurred on Saturday, when George Abuanni, 27, of Waterbury, lost control of his car on Interstate 691 in Southington, struck a rock embankment and then was hit by another car.

State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said between midnight Wednesday and midnight Monday, troopers issued 1,611 speeding citations, 85 tickets for seat-belt violations and 3,041 for other hazardous moving violations, including unsafe lane changes, following too closely, handheld cellphone use and failure to signal. Troopers made 62 arrests for driving under the influence and responded to 10,469 calls.

Vance said troopers will continue high-profile enforcement through the end of the 2012 holiday season.

The number of accidents was up from the number reported by state police in 2011, when there were 389 crashes, including 50 with injuries and two with fatalities. Sixty-five DUI arrests were made during the 2011 Thanksgiving weekend.